The Bourne Ultimatum is a predictable film, despite being ranked as the #55 Greatest Movie Of All Time by IMDB as of August 2007, and boasts one of the least interesting screen protagonists in action cinema history. Jason Bourne is not too subtly designed to be the American version of James Bond. Of course, Bourne has a completely different back story than Mr. Bond, being a man who can remember very little and attempts to rebuild his memory as he escapes death at every turn. He also takes on the American archetype's stoicism, especially in regards to women. Bourne is mostly uninterested in beautiful women, whereas Bond wreaks of pheromones and maintains the British perversity we all know and love.

The Bourne Ultimatum picks off where The Bourne Supremacy left off, with Jason Bourne being hunted by the CIA, the same organization who trained him to become an assassin. Bourne is slowly but surely rebuilding his memory and is determined to find out his real name. Along the way he contacts a journalist who has been following his story and may have valuable information about the men who trained him and started the mission. This is an inconvenience for U.S. official Noah Vosen who has definite plans for "Blackbriar", a mysterious code mentioned in the previous movie. Vosen wants to capture Borne and enlists the help of agent Pamela Landy to lead the search. Needless to say, Bourne is a wanted man, and we the audience run with him.

I stand by the rather obvious notion that The Bourne Ultimatum has a rather boring lead character. Instead of being able to follow a story line as with Mr. Bond, with Jason Bourne we are allowed to literally walk in his shoes. Every underwhelming thought that Bourne comes up with matches our own cluelessness as to what is happening around us. This lack of charisma is obviously not the fault of Matt Damon, who is one of Hollywood's better actors, just fresh off two very powerful performances in The Departed and in The Good Shepherd. In The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert Deniro, Damon used Edward's Wilson creepy and formless personality to match the film. We were afraid of Wilson and could only imagine the thoughts taking place behind that cold exterior. Damon plays a much studlier, strong, dark and handsome type in Jason Bourne, who like Edward Wilson, never has anything deep or profound to say. However, because Bourne is written to be a compassionate hero, this technique fails; Bourne disappears into the role and we wonder how much more fun the movie could have been with an action star that actually had something important to say.

Qualms about the protagonist aside, The Bourne Ultimatum is a well-written suspense-drama and does deliver some very exciting action sequences. Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass proves himself an excellent choreographer of chase scenes and brutal fights. He deserves to be compared to the best, not limited to Peter Jackson or even...Jackie Chan? But no great work surprises us coming from Greengrass who astounded critics with his mature work on United 93.

The best performance of the film is delivered by none of the predictable suspects like Joan Allen and David Strathairn, but by Albert Finney as an aging, rasping villain who acts like a strange crossbreed between Sigmund Freud and a giant frog. You would almost think that Finney is overacting here, but the actor is far too classy to overplay his part and merely snaps up flies (namely Damon's performance which is a fly in comparison) rather than chewing the set to bits.

The Bourne Ultimatum is no James Bond, but this Americanized action hero is nice enough to take us along for a bumpy ride. Grade: B-